5 Video Games That Would Make Fantastic Ballets

Journey is already almost a ballet in and of itself. The game is little more than a solitary figures traversing a desert, a ruined city, and a frozen mountain. There's no real story, and interaction with other players in the game can only be non-competitive. The real point of Journey is to walk you though an incredible series of puzzles and action in order to symbolize Joseph Campbell's monomyth of a hero's journey.

The whole thing is told wordlessly, and the nature of the protagonist ensures that the main character can be played by either a male or female. This is especially helpful as finding good female leads in games is still a problem. Of all the possible source materials for a game ballet, Journey is easily the most perfect.

Mirror's Edge

Speaking of female protagonists, the best one to take true front and center in a ballet would be Faith Connors. Mirror's Edge managed to do the almost impossible when it brought an actual feeling of physical contact from a first-person perspective. Controlling Connors is one of the few games in the world that made a player feel actually superhuman.

The world Connors inhabits is a totalitarian dystopia full of fast-paced chases and an oppressive, all-watching government. She and other runners are employed to hand-deliver messages to avoid the constant surveillance, but she is quickly drawn into a dance of assassination and betrayal. It's a gripping story that can easily be told through movement as well as with dialogue.

Phantasmagoria

The world needs more frightening ballets. Stuff like the ending of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring where people dance themselves to death. To that end, I request a rebirth of Phantasmagoria.

Originally released during the interactive movie game boom of the '90s, Phantasmagoria remains one of the scariest games of all time. It follows a horror novelist who retreats to an old house to write, only to be attacked by a black magician who previously used the house as a base. Dreamlike scenes of the magician murdering his wives, scenes of sexual assault and torture, and a battle against a demon make for some perfect creepy inspirations to set to dance.